Medina And Some Dinner

I don’t want to get too far into this without saying that Mets starter Trevor Williams deserves all the credit in the world for giving the Mets a chance to win on Sunday. Trevor Williams vs Julio Urias made me nervous, as you could probably tell from the last few things that I wrote here. But Williams held the Dodgers lineup to two runs in five innings, which is quite a feat to stare down Urias who, even if he hasn’t been as good as he was last season, He’s still very good and he’s still a lefty and lefties have been the Mets Kryptonite lately.

But Williams, Adam Ottavino, and Stephen Nogosek kept the Mets close against the Dodgers until the offense pulled ahead in the 8th. Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso led off with back to back doubles to tie the game 2-2, Eduardo Escobar hit a sac fly to make it 3-2, and with lefty Alex Vesia in the game, Tomas Nido got a huge insurance run to give the Mets some cushion at 4-2.

It was then that Buck Showalter rolled the dice, and I didn’t have a problem with it then, nor do I have a problem in hindsight. A lot of managers talk about the theory of putting your closer in to face a meatier part of a lineup in the 8th inning and putting someone else in for the 9th (and the save stat.) But few managers put it in practice. Now the entire Dodgers lineup can seem like filet mignon, but the juicy part is certainly the top of the order with Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, and Trea Turner. With those three due up in the 8th, Buck brought in Edwin Diaz to take care of them, and he set them down 1-2-3 to send the game to the 9th.

So the next decision was to leave Diaz in for the six out save, or to send another pitcher in for the 9th. There was apparently a long discussion in the dugout between Buck, Edwin, and Jeremy Hefner, and perhaps the discussion was about leaving Diaz in for a second inning. And in hindsight it’s easy to say they should have. But Diaz is not a two inning guy, and he never has been. So I can’t get on Buck for making the decision to bring in Seth Lugo for the ninth against Smith, Turner and Bellinger. The only worry is that Lugo is working his second straight day and that has been a recent issue with Lugo.

Will Smith immediately slapped a ball over the wall to make it 4-3. Lugo would then get the next two outs but then up came Chris Taylor. Taylor led off the at-bat with a long foul ball down the line. Last night, David Peterson was pulled after giving up a long foul ball to Mookie Betts, and I wonder if the thought even crossed Buck’s mind that maybe just like it was an ominous sign with Peterson, that it was an ominous sign with Lugo, and perhaps he wished that he could have had someone else warm up behind Lugo just in case. Of course, that’s a wee bit silly to think because you can’t just keep giving your relievers up-downs on a long trip. But the ominous sign did come to fruition as Taylor doubled down the line, and he was immediately driven home by former Marlin and former speed skater Eddie Alvarez to tie the game at 4-4. But still no regrets about Diaz pitching the 8th, because if Eddie Alvarez was going to drive a stake through the heart of Lugo, what would Seth have done against Betts, Freeman, and Turner?

So the Mets could only bring the ghost runner home in the tenth (thanks in part to J.D. Davis having too much fun running the bases and getting doubled off), so for lack of another rested option in the bullpen, Adonis Medina come on down! At this point, it was time to start rationalizing that asking Adonis Medina to get the same part of the lineup that you asked Edwin Diaz to stray from his normal inning to retire is just one of those moments where you say “It’s in God’s hands now.” Well I don’t know what God Adonis prays to, but They delivered for him. With the ghost runner haunting, Medina got Betts to fly out to short right, and got Freeman to ground out to send Inky to third. Then after Trea Turner reached on catcher’s interference (and asked for review for catcher’s interference which might have helped as they took the bat out of the hands of one of their best hitter’s hands), Medina got Smith swinging to end a game that it looked like it was Wilson floating away in the ocean. Remarkably, the Mets wound up splitting this series against the Dodgers without 3/5ths of their starting rotation and with Adonis Medina closing out the second win.

So that’s a 2-2 record to start the death stretch of 22 games with the Padres coming up next. The good news is that the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim have lost 11 straight games which downgrades their danger. The bad news is that the last three losses were to the Phillies so thanks a whole freakin’ lot.

Today’s Hate List

1. Will Smith
2. Eddie Alvarez
3. Pique
4. Raisel Iglesias
5. Ondrej Palat
6. Colin Cowherd